


Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice

by JazzRaft



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-21 09:02:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12454038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzRaft/pseuds/JazzRaft
Summary: There's a hidden cabin, tucked away in a quiet valley, where the kings and their consorts go to get away from the crown. When Noctis takes his turn at it, it's fall and he indulges in every little autumn tradition he can. All of which include holding Nyx's hand through falling yellow leaves.





	1. blanket nests and kitten fuzz

**Author's Note:**

> for day two of the [deathbyfluff october challenge](https://nyxnoctocalypse.tumblr.com/post/165381753552/fluffpocalypse-october-2017-prepare-to-die) and for #16 of [this fall prompt list](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/post/165250120349/fallautumn-writing-prompts-for-your-otp)

There was this fluffy white cat.

He had pale blue eyes and a pushed-in face that made him look like he was always unhappy. But he ran up to Noctis and creaked out a meow so small and genuine for such a grumpy face that it damn well near broke Nyx’s heart. The cat had a little silver bell on his collar that barely emitted the faintest jingle, yet somehow, Noctis always seemed to hear it. He always jumped up out of nowhere and hurried to the screen door of their tiny rental cabin and crouched down into an incoherent, crooning fool to greet their friendly, four-legged neighbor.

The rustic retreat was a secluded one, further up in the northern regions of Lucis where the trees grew thicker and the roads thinned to fewer. Noctis told him that it had been one of many hiding spots before he was born for his mother to whisk Regis off to when the Crown dropped too close to his father’s head. The cabin had seen no use since her passing, nearly two decades ago now. But Regis had been too sentimental to take his name off the deeds to all the hidden paradises he shared with his wife.

Noctis thought that it was about time they made use of them again. Especially since fall in the Crown City got so hectic. School started up again, department stores got in the new trends and products for pedestrian traffic to flock to, and the laze of summer was chased away by the perpetual roar of the work commute.

The north cabin was quiet, tucked far and away from any highways or main roads. It was on a tiny little street in the backwoods to nowhere, dotted with equally tiny houses, perhaps for more anonymous nobles to run away to. Maybe the cat was one of theirs. It was well-groomed and had a collar, but no tag with a name or address to send it back to if it was lost. It didn’t seem like the kind of creature that got lost though. It seemed to know exactly where it was and where it was going.

Nevertheless, it made Nyx anxious. While the little animal only ever appeared in the day, some nights he worried whether it got inside before the daemons came out. Not that they could ever get close to the street, with all of the floodlights surrounding it far out in the forest around them, but still. He hoped the animal wasn’t stupid enough to stay out there when the sun went down. Or that his owners weren’t careless enough not to find him and bring him inside.

His hopes were dashed the first day it rained on their little getaway. In both the cat’s and the owners’ defenses, it was technically daytime. As far as he knew, they were still smart enough not to get the animal killed by daemons. Not smart enough to keep it in when it was overcast though.

“W-Wait, stop. Do you hear that?”

Nyx groaned into Noct’s neck, pressing his hips down hard to demand back his focus. It was the perfect, rainy fall day to stay inside, stoke up some flames in the old stone fireplace, and build a nest of quilts and pillows on the floor in front of it. The floor was a deep, woody red, reflective of the fire light and a wonder for Noct’s back. Nestled down in the thick sea of woolen blankets, reclined on the expertly constructed mound of pillows stolen from every couch and bed in the house, with a little mulled wine trading between their lips, Nyx just got his hands in his pants when Noctis suddenly pulled away.

“It’s rain, Noct. It’s been rain all day.”

The prince squirmed out from underneath him, much against Nyx’s protests and the insistence of his hands tugging at his clothes and his mouth chasing the flushed skin of his throat. He was left with nothing but a forlorn whine as Noctis wriggled from his embrace. Nyx sprawled against the blankets with a grunt, arm thrown out after Noctis as he padded across the room to the front door. Noctis opened the door a crack to look through the screen beyond it. The plaintive noise that came out of his throat had Nyx sitting up and shaking the lust from his head in an instant.

He could barely get a question out before Noctis was shuffling back to the blankets and snatching one of the extras folded up to the side of the fireplace. He rushed back to the door and pushed open the screen. The drum of the rain roared against the awning, dragging down dead leaves to plaster the porch. Noctis crouched down, gathered up a dismal mop of pale hair in the burgundy blanket, and closed the doors. The sound of the autumn rain thudded quietly against the roof as Noctis retreated back to the fireplace, muttering comforts to the drenched skeleton of fur wrapped up in the blanket.

“Seriously?” Nyx growled, glaring out the nearest window as Noctis set the cat down in front of the fireplace.

“What do you mean, ‘seriously?’ I’m sorry, alright, I just…”

Nyx looked back to a wounded Noctis, eyes wide in shock and brows furrowed in annoyance. He turned hunched shoulders to Nyx and rubbed down the cat. Nyx quickly reached out to him.

“No, Noct, I’m not mad at _you_.” He laughed because the idea was just too absurd. “Please. I might be horny, but come on, I’m not heartless. It’s just that some people don’t deserve to have pets.” He scoffed outside again, to whatever house the cat’s owners resided in.

Noctis gave him a cautious glance. He was still flushed from the work Nyx had done on him just moments before, lips dark with wine and kisses, the neckline of his shirt pulled down his shoulder. The clasp of his belt snaked undone against his thigh, the hem of his jeans wrestled below his hips, and the black band of his boxers against the skin of his waist, all soft and ruined with that teetering look between guarded and forgiving on his face. Nyx kissed him, apologetic – and so damn hungry for him, gods, he’d been looking forward to the perfect privacy of the cabin since they planned the trip. But the cat whined next to them and the moment was lost. Noctis bit his lip in that precious, rueful way that drove Nyx crazy, and he whined in the back of his throat himself.

“I’ll go get some bowls,” he sighed, defeated.

The intensity of the moment was long past, but the warmth of it lingered in a softer heat than the blistering passion he’d set out for. Nyx set out cereal bowls of fresh water and some shredded chicken he had pre-cooked for further along in the week. Noctis gently rubbed the blanket in circles throughout the cat’s fur, coaxing out the dampness of the rain and fluffing the creature back to the pillowy softness that so enchanted the prince. The blanket was coated in messy clumps of white by the time the cat was dry and huddled over the water bowl. It was set aside for a long soak in the washing machine later, and Noctis sat back against the pillows beside Nyx again, watching the cat eat.

“Do you think it was just an accident?” he asked after a while.

“Wouldn’t they have noticed he was gone by now if it was?”

Noctis quieted again. Nyx didn’t like the crestfallen look on his face or the way he hugged an arm around himself and took a liberal gulp of the cooling wine left at the edges of the nest to cope with the concept of a person being so careless with their pet.

“But, you know,” Nyx tried instead, “he’s an outdoor cat. Lots of animals out in the country are. They’re a lot different than indoor pets. More independent, sharper instincts, better sense of direction. Maybe the owners did leave a window open for him, but he just decided this house was closer when the rain started.”

Noctis nodded, a slow bob of the head, barely listening. He’d convinced himself that people were evil and he needed to adopt every animal in all of Eos to spare them from mankind’s stupidity. Nyx rolled his eyes and tugged him closer to his side, happier when Noctis relented to the touch and melted into the crook of his arm where he belonged. Nyx wrapped one of the blankets beneath them around him, let him take another bracing gulp of the wine, and kissed his temple.

“Look, he’s fine.” Nyx nodded at the cat, licking his lips of the remaining chicken and dragging a paw across his face to start grooming. “He’s just a drama queen. We’ll go door to door when it stops raining, and you can yell at whoever we find if they’re not beside themselves with the right amount of worry. Okay?”

“Okay.”

He liked the verbal response much better than the silence. He liked the look of his eyes even more when they looked up at him of their own accord. A little misty with concern and liquor and the fading imprint of lust, the fire striking yellow flecks through his irises like floating leaves on a deep blue lake.

“I’ll make this up to you,” Noctis promised, nodding at the romantic refuge they had built for themselves.

The cat decided that he would indulge in the comforts of his sanctuary from the rain. He marched right up between the two of them when he was done grooming and tucked himself in the little nook behind where Noct’s knee touched Nyx’s thigh. His paws kneaded the blanket to a comfortable consistency, he walked himself in a couple circles – one clockwise, one counter-clockwise, another the other way – and settled down into a tiny ball. He stared up at Noctis, blinking slowly. Hypnotized as only cats could do, Noctis scratched his head and earned a purr of contentment for his obedience. He rolled his eyes over to Nyx as Noctis pet him. He managed to resist the temptation only until Noctis matched the imploring stare. Nyx gave the cat a scratch beneath the chin and he happily tucked his nose beneath his tail to go to sleep.

A tiny motor-boat of heat between them. The fire crackling, the rain beating mutely overhead, spiced wine still just as good cold as hot. Noctis still a little sloppy beneath the heavy blanket next to him. Still looking at him with the echoes of his begging for him in his eyes. He supposed it wasn’t the worst way to end a day.

\--

The rain stopped in the morning and the cat was gone when they woke up. Which freaked Nyx out because there was no way it could have gotten out of the house without thumbs. The windows were shut, the doors were locked, there was no place for the creature to crawl out of, and Nyx didn’t think it was the type to go through all that effort when it could just scratch and howl until it woke someone up to let it out.

Noctis wanted to go looking for him, confused, but still worried about the animal. But sure enough, in the late afternoon, when they had walked the street and peered in windows at the safest distance they could without seeming like voyeurs, the cat jingled up to their porch again for a belly rub. It stayed for about half an hour, let Noctis look beyond the porch in search of another soul that might know who the cat belonged to, and then the cat was off. Vanished into the fallen leaves.

One more walk down the street, and Nyx quickly realized that there wasn’t a damn person living there but the two of them for the week. Which only led Nyx to a single conclusion. Their house was cursed by the ghost of a cockblocking kitten.


	2. sweater weather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis is a collector of comfy sweaters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for day two of the [death by fluff october challenge](https://nyxnoctocalypse.tumblr.com/post/165381753552/fluffpocalypse-october-2017-prepare-to-die) and for #10 of [this fall prompt list](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/post/165250120349/fallautumn-writing-prompts-for-your-otp)

Nyx liked the way Noctis dressed.

Understated and contemporary, full of nondescript shades and blank fabrics. He wasn’t big into patterns or prints unless it depicted characters or symbols from his favorite games, and those he didn’t wear unless he was slouching around indoors with his friends. When he was out, it was in his favorite boots, maybe sneakers in the warmer months. Jeans or cargos, always. T-shirts when it was hot, sweaters when it was cold.

Noctis liked the cool weather more. Nyx realized this when he could count more long sleeves on the man than he could short ones. His summer wardrobe consisted of more repeat outfits than originals. Nyx seemed to recall seeing the same skull and crossbones tee throughout most of May. Once mid-September abruptly veered into the headlong rush of the northern winds, Noctis dragged down a new set of sleeves over his arms every day.

He liked layers. He liked adorning himself with all the different accessories he collected throughout the year. Like the humble gray squirrels indigenous to the thick forests of Duscae, Noctis hoarded “survival necessities” for the winter. Cashmere scarves, warm leather gloves, even hats, which Nyx had been all but certain Noctis hated until the first frost cut through Insomnia. He had a different coat for every week, some with faux fur-trimmed hoods, others with high collars; some with dark blue plaid on the insides, more with warmer and fluffier insulation. He had turtlenecks and cable-knits and plenty of Henleys in various cool, dark shades – Nyx’s personal favorites.

He liked complimenting Noctis. Whether it was with words or hands, he liked the subtle flush to his cheeks whenever Nyx openly admired him. He liked the way he pulled on his sleeves because he needed to give his hands something to do that didn’t involve latching onto Nyx and letting him show Noctis just how much he appreciated the outfit. He liked how the soft fabrics of fall relaxed the fine lines of his face and blunted the sharp fronds of his hair. He liked how the dark, dyed wools steeped a little bit of the penumbral autumn evenings into the blue of his eyes.

“That’s a new one.”

Nyx nodded at the newest addition to Noct’s fall wardrobe. It was a mottled black sweater, with a cowl neck and thumbhole sleeves. Loose about the torso and slim down the arms, it folded around him as cozy as a blanket at the corner of Nyx’s bed on a rainy evening. The lightness of his skin haunted against the edges like the most kissable ghost. His lips were nipped pink beneath the cowl he’d pulled up to guard them, coming in from the late October winds buffeting the town. Beneath the windblown wilds of his hair, his eyes were as bright and dreamy as candlelight.

“It is,” he confirmed, kissing him across the booth as he reached him. “It reminded me of you.”

“What?” Nyx laughed.

Noctis nestled into the faded maroon cushion of the booth like he’d been coming to the place his whole life. The town was bundled deep down in a valley between the northern hills that they’d fled to for the fall. It was a ten minute drive from their rustic cabin paradise in the woods, down a scenic road lined in fiery trees and over-looking the stretch of glittering lake that cushioned them from the rest of the world. The water lapped gently just outside the window to the diner. The tiny port town was built along its bank, all old stone cottages from a bygone era, with all the modern accoutrements applied to stay in business.

Noctis loved everything about it. He loved raiding the thrift store for comfy hand-me-downs like his new sweater. He loved renting a canoe off the docks and taking it out upon the misty lake in the evenings to fish. He loved ordering a new hot drink off the café menu every morning for as long as they were staying. He loved the old movie theater with only two screens – one for classics, and one for the newest blockbusters. He loved all of the farmland that reached beyond the edge of town where they raised produce and livestock and offered homemade goods for the curious traveler.

And Nyx loved watching Noctis be so in love. He loved the sight of him, perched on the wooden fence encircling the corn fields in his sweaters and boots, steam clouds of coffee warming a nose reddened by the October chill. And he loved watching him in the warm diner, the sunlight off the lake beneath the window glowing along the edges of his smile as he looked at him. He tugged on the cowl of the new sweater, grinning coyly into the black material just for Nyx’s benefit.

“It reminded me of you,” he said again. “It’s dark, it’s warm, a little sexy…”

Nyx lifted a brow. “Only a little?”

“Just a tiny bit.”

Nyx pouted in dismay. Noctis made it up to him by ordering lunch. The diner served seasonal sandwiches that he was sure Ignis would pay his life’s savings for the recipes. “The Harvest Veg” was quickly becoming Nyx’s favorite – steaks of roasted butternut squash, baby sprouts, pickled beets, and a tangy yogurt spread that he would kill to know the secret ingredients of. Noctis still went for the sweet and savory – and Nyx couldn’t even blame him – ordering a grilled cheese sandwich of apple butter and pepper jack.

“Still want to head out to the mill after this?” Noctis asked, teasing strings of peppery melted cheese past his lips.

“Do you?”

Noctis glanced up at him, considering the intent way Nyx studied the new sweater. “I do. Think a little bit of hay will be a nice way to finish off this look.”


	3. scarves are for snuggling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis is very bad at pretending he's not cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for day six of the [deathbyfluff october challenge](https://nyxnoctocalypse.tumblr.com/post/165381753552/fluffpocalypse-october-2017-prepare-to-die) and for #9 of [this fall prompt list](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/post/165250120349/fallautumn-writing-prompts-for-your-otp)

Noctis didn’t regularly drink coffee. He didn’t loathe it for some childhood slight like he did carrots and all things green, but if he was presented with the choice, often he’d pick tea.

It wasn’t something Nyx noticed about him until they started eating out. Once the waiter asked for “tea or coffee with dessert,” Noctis always chose tea. But when Nyx brewed up a pot of coffee in the mornings after he spent the night at his apartment, Noctis took his mug with a dreamy smile and a grateful kiss. On the rare occasions where Nyx could stay over at Noct’s plush, high-rise apartment, he would brew coffee for Nyx and boil water for tea. He wondered if Ignis thought he was living with a heretic.

Once fall rolled around though, and the cafes put pumpkin spice lattes on the menu as if they were their saving grace, Nyx sniffed less Earl Grey and more sweet roasts. And since arriving at the hilly little hamlet where the royal cabin retreat over-looked, Noctis couldn’t get enough of the local diner’s homemade lattes.

“You’re turning into one of those pre-teens liking pretty pictures on that photo app Prompto loves so much.”

Noctis looked like he could dump the steaming beverage over his head for such an insult. Instead, he huddled deeper into the bench and wrapped his fingers around the paper cup, as if to assure the drink that the horrible man beside him didn’t mean anything by it.

The sky was blanketed with thick, gray clouds beyond the awning overhead, drizzling rain and looking about as cold as it felt. It hadn’t exactly been the bright, temperate week of weather they had been promised before setting out from Insomnia. They had a couple good days, and there were still a few more to look forward to before they had to go back, but for the most part, it had been cloudy and rainy and damp with cold. As much as Noctis shivered and curled himself into balls against the chill, he never complained once. Nyx thought that he actually kind of liked it this way. The coffee probably helped.

“Still got some time to kill,” Nyx reminded him, eyes raking over Noct’s clenched up ball of defiance to the cold. “You going to make it?”

Noctis glanced between the time on his phone and the time on the movie poster behind them. Nyx could see the despair in his eyes, no matter if he didn’t express it. “Yeah, I’m good. It’s fine.”

The chattering of his teeth said otherwise. He cracked open the lid to the cup to let some of the steam pour over his nose before taking another sip. It was so pitifully adorable that Nyx’s chest hurt. He shifted closer on the clammy bench, unwinding the patterned scarf Noctis had bought him because he said the dusty reds and browns reminded him of home.

“Come on, come here. Pretend like you know me.”

“After you scorned me for my artisanal coffee choices? You’re lucky this relationship isn’t over.”

Nyx wound the scarf around the both of them, tucking Noctis close and tying the scarf snug around his face, effectively crafting them a little nest of winter apparel and trapping Noctis so close to his face that he couldn’t escape the kisses begging for his forgiveness. He tickled butterfly kisses against his cheeks, along the ridge of his eye, grazed his chin along his ear and down the edge of his neck where he knew he was most ticklish.

Noctis put up a valiant fight of squirming and mewling and trying to rustle a fabric between his skin and Nyx’s mouth, but he was laughing in seconds and cursing his name, careful not to spill the coffee in the assault.

“You get away with everything,” Noctis whined.

Nyx wrapped his arms around him and burrowed his face deep into the scarf to help warm the prince up, breathing hot air against the tops of his ears that pricked cold against his lips. “You say that like it’s news.”

“I say that because maybe if I hear it enough, I’ll remember how to avoid it.”

“Then you keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.”

Noctis snorted, escaping a kiss by occupying his lips with more coffee. It was because it was so sweet that he loved these lattes, Nyx knew. It was like dessert in a cup, and the Six knew that the prince had a sweet-tooth that would put every toddler in Lucis to shame. Nyx didn’t mind his indulgences. They tasted all the better on his lips when they were from Noct’s.

“Hey,” Noctis murmured suddenly, while they were stuck so close and it was just the two of them waiting outside the vacant theater. “I love you. I know we don’t say that a lot, because we don’t really need to. But I wanted to say it at least once.”

“I don’t mind hearing it every once in a while. Don’t mind saying it even more.”

Nyx smiled at him. Few moments were more perfectly peaceful than this one. No traffic on the little dirt roads, the crunch of falling leaves skittering beneath their boots in the breezy drizzle, sweet, spiced coffee steaming up between them in the nest of a cheap, thrift store scarf, whispering “I love you” just for the sake of hearing it. Nyx kissed his nose, red with cold, then nudged Noct’s face beneath his chin for him to snuggle into the scarf.

“I love you back, little king.”

A pleased little purr nuzzled against his throat. They sat on the bench for a while longer, drinking in each others warmth and love and lazy affection in the autumn weather. After a few moments, Nyx check his watch.

“Still want to see this movie?”

“Gods, yes, please. It’s freezing.”

Nyx laughed in disbelief, Noctis piercing a vengeful elbow into his side as they stood up. They stumbled against each other, still bound together by the scarf, and every time Noctis tried to free them, Nyx would catch his hands and keep them both trapped. He had no intentions of letting Noctis go. Not now, not ever.


	4. smoke in the air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis pulls on an old hoodie and pulls Nyx into half-forgotten memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for day eight of the [deathbyfluff october challenge](https://nyxnoctocalypse.tumblr.com/post/165381753552/fluffpocalypse-october-2017-prepare-to-die) and for #8 of [this fall prompt list](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/post/165250120349/fallautumn-writing-prompts-for-your-otp)

Nyx smoked for three years after he moved to Insomnia.

It was stupid. He knew it would kill him, but not before his mother did if she ever found out. Although at the time, both of them were too aggrieved with the loss of Selena to notice much of anything about each other. Least of all over the phone, with landlines upon landlines to hide behind.

He smoked and he drank because they made everything hurt less, and Libertus, foggy from his own vices, couldn’t do much to help – not that Nyx was asking for it. He threw away a lot of things with the habits once he cleaned up – lots of ass-kicking from Crowe and long talks into the dawn with Libs. And once, a subdued heart to heart with the King of Lucis himself.

He couldn’t stand the smell of smoke on all of his clothes. He scrubbed them and soaked them in his sink for days until they were clean enough to give away to those who needed them more. And those that couldn’t smell his shame no matter how much soap he used.

He didn’t recognize the hoodie when Noctis threw it into his suitcase before they left for the cabin. He forgot about it entirely once it was buried under the rest of his clothes he was taking on the trip. It only drew his eye again once Noctis was wearing it.

The weather had finally cleared up to the temperate, blue-skied beauty the news had promised. The air was cool and the sun was steady, and they were determined to get out to the pumpkin fields at the edge of town before the weather turned again for the worse. They didn’t need to bundle up against the chill, but Noctis grabbed the first jacket he saw on the way out that was light enough for the day.

It was a ratty, dark navy rag of a thing, draw-strings frayed down to the threads and holes in the sleeves. A few cigarette burns curdled into the arms, phantoms of the poisoned years wasted on self-prescribed anesthesia. He felt his thoughts harden and his jaw tighten, a reflex trained against the darkness of those old thoughts. He expected them to collide back into his brain, cruel and unwanted with the reminder of his past in front of him.

But as they climbed up into the hay wagon to take them to the fields, with a smattering of happy families enjoying the day and Noctis bouncing down onto a hay-bale seat next to him, Nyx found that his thoughts were much softer than he feared they would be. Noctis caught him staring and smiled, bumping his shoulder into his, the over-sized hoodie sagging around his neck.

“I have a confession to make,” Noctis said, winding his arm through Nyx’s to hold on as the tractor lurched forward, sending all the passengers keening to the side before settling back against the bales. “I’ve never done this, but I’ve always wanted to.”

“Roll around in the hay?”

Noctis scolded him with a glare that quite loudly said, “Nyx, there are children present.” He glanced at the kids at the other end of the wagon, climbing over bales and bringing woe to their parents by leaning out the edges to better see the fields when they got closer.

“Pumpkin picking,” Noctis corrected. “Any picking, really. I heard about it online, but for a while I thought that places like these weren’t even open anymore with the war and stuff.”

“We used to have places like these all over the place in Galahd. Agriculture was a big thing. Everything ‘outdoorsy.’ Fishing, hiking, sailing in the summer. Harvest in the fall.”

“Is this anything like home?”

He remembered rocking back and forth in the back of a red tractor with Selena and his friends. He remembered Crowe hanging off the sides like the little girl at the other end of the wagon. He remembered his mother and Libs’ mother trying to wrangle them all into sitting still until they got to the fields. He remembered that Selena always picked the biggest pumpkin in the field and that Libertus would always try to out-weigh her every year, but could never quite find a squash that rivaled the monsters she sniffed out.

“Yeah. It’s a lot like home.”

He pulled Noctis closer, relieved that he couldn’t smell cigarette smoke on the hoodie. Noctis curled around his arm for the rest of the ride, hands kneading absently against the inside of his forearm. He occasioned a smile up at Nyx, assuring him that he was there for him if he needed him. And even if he didn’t. It made Nyx smile as much as the memories did. As much as the smell of hay and the crispness of the air did.

He could breathe, clear and easy. The only smoke he could taste in on the back of his tongue was from some faraway chimney. There was a tang of charcoal and wood-fire somewhere past the orange leaves fencing the pumpkin field. It was comforting, and familiar in a much sweeter smokiness than the nicotine.

He followed Noct’s bouncy stride out into the field when they were dropped off, watching him and how the hoodie drooped around him. It would smell like Noctis now, he realized. This awful thing that he wished he never had to remember would be washed clean with the scent of the prince’s skin. This object of his past that he never wanted to touch this beautiful future, yet Noctis wore it with pride. Because it belonged to Nyx, and Noctis loved him. Everything about him. All the good and all of the bad, too.

“Do you think that they’ll even let me bring something this huge back into the city with me?”

Noctis crouched next to a big orange bulge resting against the soil. The thing was nearly the size of one of the toddlers that rode with them. It was as big as his sister had been when she was six.

“I’m sure we could work something out. Assuming you even want to carry that thing out of here?”

Noctis looked up at him, eyes sparkling with defiance. Nyx pulled the collar of his coat over his mouth to try and keep himself from laughing when Noctis attempted to tackle lifting the thing. He rolled it off its side so it was standing straight, stem up, and tried to clasp the prickly protrusion and lift it that way. That quickly proved to be more painful than productive.

“Don’t hurt yourself, Noct. You’ll mess up your back no matter how you try it.”

The only way to pick up these stones in squash form was like picking up a baby. Nyx hefted the orange giant into his arms with a groan. Noctis pouted in defeat, but picked up a consolation prize for Nyx’s gallantry. He got a much tinier pumpkin that he could tuck beneath his arm. He looked all too proud of himself for the giant in Nyx’s arms.

“You okay carrying that?” he asked as they walked back to the field entrance to wait for the wagon’s return.

“I’ll manage. Just for you though. I don’t show off these muscles for just anyone, y’know.”

Noctis snorted and rolled his eyes, pulling up the hood of the jacket so that he could pretend he didn’t know the ridiculous man with the giant pumpkin next to him. Hard to pretend he didn’t know him when he was wearing his clothes. Wearing his past with so much ease and respect for what he’d overcome to be the type of man that a prince could fall in love with.

He wouldn’t have loved him if he knew him when Nyx used to wear that hoodie. He hadn’t even loved himself when he used to wear that hoodie. But he loved Noctis in it now. Learned to love how it represented all he overcame and all he had received for it when it was on Noct’s shoulders.

The tractor grumbled up to the entrance and they piled back onto the hay bales, Nyx hefting the big pumpkin onto the floor between them and groaning in relief. Noctis smiled, gratefully, rewarding him with a quick kiss on the cheek.

“My hero.”

“It’s a pumpkin, baby.”

“Still my hero.”

Noctis resumed his place around his arm, tucking the pumpkin beneath his knees so it wouldn’t roll along the wagon bed when they moved. He held the smaller prize like it was a stuffed animal, precious and irreplaceable. Nyx hugged him just the same.


	5. quiet & light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paradise says goodbye in the same way it said hello; gently and full of promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for day ten of the [deathbyfluff october challenge](https://nyxnoctocalypse.tumblr.com/post/165381753552/fluffpocalypse-october-2017-prepare-to-die) and for #15 of [this fall prompt list](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/post/165250120349/fallautumn-writing-prompts-for-your-otp)

Light acted differently out from underneath the Wall. It was still and steady where the light of the city seemed to always be shifting. Insomnia was in constant motion, the ripples of his father’s magic stirring an ancient haze over the towering planes of glass. But out in the countryside, when the autumn winds settled and the amber plumes of leaves suspended, motionless, in the brisk evenings, Noctis could feel the tranquility of the earth sink deep into his very bones.

Time sighed through the dawn mist with the rising rays of sunlight. The shadows turned so slowly that he couldn’t even see them move. They were in one place – dark fire struck beneath the oaks – but no matter how intently he stared out at them, he never saw them move to the next. Wherever the sun cast them, they looked like they had always been there and nowhere else.

The fog rolled in leaden clouds across the lake. It reminded him of the closed eyes beside him. Constant, captivating, enigmatic, capturing his imagination for immeasurable lengths of time. All of the valley reminded him of Nyx. Maybe that was why he loved it so much. It was quiet, steadfast, but bursting with adventure. The hills closed around the cabin, intimately concealing the escape from colder, curious glares.

He didn’t feel like he was under a microscope when he was here and he was with Nyx. He felt welcomed to a place he didn’t think would want him. He felt belonged in a way he had tried to feel with Insomnia for all of his life, but never did. He felt found in the misty morning, where the grays glowed with their own colors and their strange stillness that was always in motion.

He loved the air, clean and crisp and driving deep into his lungs every time he pulled a breath inside. He loved the noise, a silence of sounds that he didn’t hear in the city. The closing strum of the crickets as the night paled into morning. The croak of the frogs on the shores of the distant lake, the humble symphony for the wild. He could hear birds singing the first notes of the sunrise choir. All hidden beneath the safe shroud of the morning mist.

The bed croaked awake beneath him, arms folded against the headboard to gaze out the window above it. The sheets rasped across naked skin, then an arm rested loosely around his waist. Coarse hair itched into the small of his back, tickling his own lips into a drowsy smile. Nyx kissed the shallow dip, warm and slow.

“Do you know what time it is? I thought you wanted it to be against the law to be awake this early.”

His voice was as rough as the hair on his chin, brushing up Noct’s spine to settle in the slope between his neck and shoulder. HIs eyes were as misty as the morning and just as quiet with half-sleep. Noctis rolled his head against his, bumping against frizzy braids, dismayed from their intricate design by desperate hands in the midnight.

“The sounds woke me up.”

“The cat again?”

“No,” Noctis laughed. He nodded out the window, barely lifting his head, the languor of the valley too heavy to want to move. “Everything else.”

Nyx hummed in agreement, or just to make a sound to tell him he was listening. His eyes drifted shut as he nuzzled back into Noct’s skin. Noctis felt his breath against his neck, the rise and fall of his chest against his side, instinctively matching the rhythm of his own breathing.

Everything was so vulnerable in these hours. So innocent. So pristine and untouched by the burdens of the day. And Noctis felt like he was a part of it at last. He didn’t feel like he was on the outside looking in, begging to know what utter contentment could possible feel like. He was here. He breathed with the heartbeat of daybreak. He was whole with it, not apart from it.

“I don’t think I can go back, Nyx,” he confessed. “I know there’s Dad, and the guys, and your job, and your friends, but…”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know.”

The cabin was strewn with everything that Noctis wanted. Two coffee mugs on the kitchen counter, the coffee pot standing expectantly beside them and a tea kettle shadowing it on the stove. Thick coats thrown across the couches, warm scarves nestled in the hoods, hand-me-down sweaters slung on the hangers in the open closet. Pumpkins by the fire place, woolen quilts draped across the bed and spilling onto the wooden floors, claimed with a few strands of fluffy white cat fur. The ghost of wood-smoke and cinnamon drenched into the walls and the sheets and everything.

“We’ll come back,” Nyx promised in the dopey certainty of slumber. “Whenever you want.”

“Whenever I want is always.”

“I won’t object if you want to suddenly have a change of character and enact the spoiled royal brat policies we’ve dreamed about.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“That’s all I know how to do.”

He kissed along the pathways of sleep-tendered skin. Noctis smiled, lop-sided and lazy and so far away from his own cares. About the Crown, about Insomnia, about anything he’d been told should be the world to him.

This was his world. These were the things he wanted to protect with the power he was destined to inherit. The lazy mornings of hidden lovers. The earthy perfume of the fall wilds surrounding them. The close, snugness of the pillows and the blankets and the pumpkins and the coffee.

Noctis pulled himself away from the view to sink back against Nyx, returning the wandering kisses. Lazy laps of wistful love in the foggy autumn light.


End file.
